Edmonton Oilers labelled as "hot garbage," by Vice Sports. Hmmmm

Disappointing? Yes. Weird? Yes. But Oilers are not “hot garbage.”

This in from Toronto-based writer Kyle Cantlon of Vice Sports, under the headline of: “The Edmonton Oilers are hot garbage, but that hasn’t stopped McDavid from following up his MVP season with another dynamic year.” Writes Cantlon: “To put it lightly, Edmonton has been an absolute dumpster fire this season after breaking a 10-year playoff drought in 2016-17 on the back of McDavid’s MVP campaign. Peter Chiarelli and the management group has failed miserably in building a team around their captain in the last year of his entry-level contract, and has the Oilers sitting in a terrible spot as a result. The team’s historically putrid penalty kill, no secondary scoring, mediocre goaltending, and a lack of talent on the wing, particularly alongside No. 97, have plagued the Oilers and have them once again in the hunt for a high draft pick as they currently sit third-last in the Pacific and 11 points out of the final wild-card spot in the West.”

My take

Of course, it might well be best to ignore this kind of post, as it’s not from a known sportswriter or from a weighty publication, but my completionist streak wins out here. Vice is a popular site and this kind of commentary is indicative of a certain school of thought about the Oilers this year. In fact, a loud faction of Oilers fans are in this same furious school that has nothing good to say about the team. I’ve seen endless Twitter comments about the Oilers being a “dumpster fire,” and this Vice post is a good example of that category of commentary. In fact, “hot garbage” might even reach a new height of disgust for the 2017-18 Edmonton Oilers. So I like to record this kind of thing — and also to chew over the arguments.

It’s fair to say the Oilers special teams have been an absolute dumpster fire this year. They have been. But the entire team? If you put any weight in shot or scoring chance metrics — and you don’t have to do so, but I do — then you can’t fully buy into this particular critique.

This has been a disappointing and weird year for the Oilers, but there are a few significant positives — and that’s outside of Connor McDavid. The power play, the penalty kill, and at times the goaltending have indeed been awful, but this is a team that still outshoots and outchances its opposition most games. It gets more of the most dangerous scoring chances than its opposition. The Oilers have been undone by certain aspects of their game — in some part due inflexible tactics and poor personnel choices on the special teams — but the Oilers have shown plenty of game at even strength, enough to lift Edmonton, with 50 points in 51 games, to within one point of fake .500 in the NHL. Now fake .500 will never get you in the playoffs in the Loser Point NHL, but it doesn’t scream out “hot garbage” either.

Yes, Connor McDavid is the world’s most dynamic player and he scored four goals vs Tampa, the NHL’s best team, but there was a month-long stretch where McDavid wasn’t himself this year due to illness. It’s also a fact that he and his coaches are only now figuring out that McDavid on the right half-wall of the power play simply isn’t going to work for him or the team, not until he becomes a proficient one-timer shooter. Finally, at long last, against Tampa Bay, McDavid was moved off that half-wall to the point and to the bumper position on the power play. Voila, two power play goals came right away. It was no coincidence. If the Oilers and McDavid had figured out the power play earlier this year, McDavid would be ahead by 10 points in the NHL’s scoring race right now, not tied for third and five point behind the league leader.

So Cantlon thinks everything on the Oilers other than McDavid is “hot garbage”? I can assure you Darnell Nurse isn’t hot garbage. He’s come into his own as a fast, nasty and highly effective Top 4 d-man. Leon Draisaitl has had his power play struggles — largely because he’s not been positioned in an ideal spot to fire the puck — but only seven other NHL players have more even strength points than Draisaitl this year. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is having what many consider to be his finest season — or he was until he got hurt. Jesse Puljujarvi has taken major strides this year. Patrick Maroon has been a solid Top 6 forward. On defence, the Oilers have greatly missed a healthy Andrej Sekera this year, but Kris Russell and Brandon Davidson have been stalwart defenders. Adam Larsson and Oscar Klefbom have also played well, at least when they’ve been healthy. A team doesn’t outchance the opposition at even strength simply because of one player, and the Oilers have had plenty of strong performances from players other than McDavid.

Toronto is home to any number of hard-working, fair-minded sports writers and commentators who do excellent work. It’s also home to many Toronto-centric, Leafs-embedded writers who can’t stand it that McDavid is in Edmonton. This article strikes me as coming from that school of self-serving snark.

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